In a significant development, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Saturday said that an all-party meeting on Telangana could be convened before or after the Winter Session of Parliament.
Shinde admitted that the Centre was seized of the Telangana issue and steps would be taken to solve it at the earliest.
“They have waited for so long, they can wait for some more time,” he said while indirectly referring to TRS chief K. Chandra-sekhar Rao’s battle cry on Telangana. Asked specifically when would the all-party meeting be convened, he said, “It could be before the Parliament Session or after.”
He also said that he did not receive the letter sent by Telugu Desam chief N. Chandrababu Naidu asking the Centre to convene an all-party meeting.
“My predecessor P. Chidambaram held an all-party meeting and took the opinion of various parties on their stand on Telangana. The issue was also discussed with various leaders and the deliberations are still on,” Mr Shinde said.
Saturday’s statement, comes close on heels of Mr Rao’s scathing attack on the Congress, assumes significance in view of previous statements by Mr Shinde and his colleagues, almost ruling out Telangana due to lack of 'consensus'.
To a question, Mr Shinde said the issue did not figure at Surajkund Congress meet, but was discussed at Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s residence later.